Ya, they really want people online and interacting. You lose the class specific quests and the concert quest, but you gain the ability to farm bosses (using free play server) and sharing your campaign with others. To me the only way to play this game is on hardcore mode. Bronze/Silver modes are far too easy and I hear gold isn't that much more of a challenge. No one reporting on Platinum yet really.

Yeah, silver mode was a breezethrough and gold isn't much different so far. It get's too self repeating after awhile when there are no real challenges in the game. Not sure if I can stay awake long enough to complete gold and jump to platinium.

Ya, I have to play HC or I feel very directionless. In one of the early patches they actually made bosses and champ mobs easier, which I think was a big mistake. Not to mention that the boss scripting breaks and they just stand there half the time. Even if it didn't break, the bosses are super easy with no scripted monkey wrench type moves. Few patches and a few tweaks this could be one of the better games released recently, but it might be hard to sell people after December.